Century-old controversy over where Buddha lived as a youth

India and Nepal both claim that their countries are where the Buddha lived before he left the palace to become an ascetic.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 visited Bodh Gaya, where Buddha attained enlightenment. Photo: AFP

Standing next to a trench nearly two meters deep, an archaeologist from the Nepalese government gazes down into a series of circular pits. Below him, he says, lies the 2,500-year-old city where the Buddha lived until he was 29.

The archaeologist said he was thinking about the future, when thousands of pilgrims will come to Nepal to visit the site in the town of Tilaurakot. "We are trying to attract them to spend money here," he said.

About 27 kilometers away, across the border, India invites visitors to visit a site that they also say is where the Buddha lived as a young man.

Since the British Raj (the period of British colonial rule in South Asia from 1858 to 1947), this archaeological controversy has remained unresolved for more than a century, and has not caused much confusion.

But changes are coming to the delta region that stretches across Nepal and India. Many international parties are investing in infrastructure to accommodate future pilgrims to the region.

“It is surprising that today, in this 21st century, 2,500 years after the birth of the Buddha, there are still many unclear points,” Nepali Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli said last month at a government-sponsored Buddhist conference in Kathmandu.

Of the 385 delegates at the conference, more than 300 were from China and nine from India. When Mr Oli complained about “outsiders trying to denigrate Nepal’s status as the home of the Buddha”, it was pretty clear who he was targeting.

"There are people, perhaps a few people, who are deliberately creating trouble," he said.

According to NYTimes, Buddhist legend has it that Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later known as the Buddha, grew up in his father's luxurious palace in the city of Kapilavastu. However, the exact location of ancient Kapilavastu is currently unknown. Some say it is the village of Piprahwa, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India today. But others say it is the village of Tilaurakot, in the Kapilavastu district of Nepal.

During his time in the palace, his father did not allow the prince to be exposed to suffering. However, at the age of 29 (some believe it was 19), Prince Siddhartha encountered old people, sick people, and dead people. This experience had a strong impact on him, causing him to leave the palace and become an ascetic. He later attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree atBodh Gaya, in India.

Location of Piprahwa and Tilaurakot. Photo: lumkap

Until the British Raj period, there were few serious attempts to determine the correct location ofAncient Kapilavastu. European scholars of India had only a small amount of evidence: the accounts of Chinese monks who made pilgrimages along the Buddha's path in the 5th and 7th centuries AD.

By the time the British withdrew from South Asia, archaeological excavations at two different sites claimed to have found relics. When the modern border between Nepal and India was drawn, both sides claimed their country as the place where the Buddha grew up.

In India, tour companies tout Piprahwa as “the place where the Buddha spent his youth, struggling with the great and puzzling questions of human existence.” This spring, India’s Ministry of Culture opened a museum there, displaying evidence, mostly in the form of ancient seal inscriptions, that they say proves that Piprahwa was indeed the place where the Buddha spent his childhood.

Meanwhile, across the border, in Tilaurakot, a Nepalese and British archaeological team supported by UNESCO has its own theory: an Indian-led expedition in the late 1960s stopped digging too soon.

The leader of the Indian expedition, Debala Mitra, discovered traces of a brick city, but she determined it was not the ancient Kapilavastu, as it was built hundreds of years after the Buddha. Last year, a UNESCO-backed team cut through the brick structure Mitra found and discovered a second structure, with walls made of clay.

They then dug further. They looked for cylindrical depressions in the ground—evidence that beneath the clay structure there had once been a wooden fence that had rotted away, leaving a crust on the ground.

Nearly two metres below ground, they found traces of hardened earth inside these holes that date back to the 6th century BC, according to laboratory analysis. This means they existed since the time of the Buddha.

Discovery by UNESCO-supported Nepalese archaeological team. Photo: NYTimes

In late April, the area was hit by a severe heat wave, forcing the expedition to be halted and the trench filled in. A banner was erected announcing that “on this road Prince Siddhartha walked towards the East Gate before renouncing his royal life.” A wooden walkway was also built to keep pilgrims from getting muddy during the pilgrimage.

According to the NYTimes reporter, the site is currently very deserted and not many people come to worship. The forest is empty except for a boy playing a game of throwing stones. But Ram Bahadur Kunwar, from the Department of Archaeology of Nepal, talks about great hope for the future.

“It’s still a mystery because we haven’t opened it yet,” he said. “But when we do, I think this structure will tell us about the history of ancient Kapilavastu.”

Others share the joy. The Asian Development Bank will finance a $54 million upgrade of the international airport near the Nepalese town of Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. When the upgrade is completed in 2030, the airport will serve 760,000 passengers a year. Lumbini is about 25 kilometers from Tilaurakot.

They expect more tourists from China, where Buddhism is experiencing a resurgence. Nepalese tour guides are learning Chinese, and new hotels are hiring Chinese chefs. One afternoon, a group of Chinese women tourists from Chengdu came to meditate for five minutes under a tree near the birthplace of the Buddha.

Sunanda Sakyaputra was a monk who had come to meditate in Tilaurakot. When asked about the village on the Indian side, he snorted. “Wrong, very wrong,” he said. “Everything. India claims everything as theirs. Why?”

According to VNE